Mar 6/7 - quite a ride

My writing today is not organized, but I'm not going to edit. I finished at 10:40pm; 17:40 total time; 251.6 miles, 16:06 rolling time, 15.6 mph average; 6400 feet of climbing. The actual mileage is probably a mile or two more.

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Where to start ... perhaps saying that I just got back from being an hour late for Mass because I hadn't realized that the time had changed, says it all. Ahem, I'll go back for 9am Mass shortly. Well, that's not even March 6th or 7th so I'd better back up a bit ...

I really didn't do much on Friday the 6th. I didn't even see the late evening Delta launch from Cape Canaveral. I was long asleep at that point, which is a good thing, because I got up around 1am on the 7th. Hold on ... my mind is really zapped here ... we went boating on the 6th ! It took two trips to get the boat launched because just as I was about to back it down the ramp I remembered that I'd forgotten to put in the plug. Of course the plug was sitting on my workbench -- I knew that one of these days I'd forget that chore. Where's the plug now ? Why it's in the glove compartment of the boat ... where I should have kept it all along.

It was a beautiful day on the water but still much cooler out there than on land. The water is still 62F and with the breeze off the ocean it was just the perfect temperature for putting along. As usual we went to the sandbar where Abby went crazy chasing minnows. They were everywhere and she ran, and she ran, and she ran. She got several days exercise all at once.

After that we went to Inlet Harbor for lunch. It, and Down the Hatch, were packed with bikers. The serving staff were run off their feet but they did a good job keeping up with the volume.

We snacked for dinner after our big lunch and I went to bed around 8pm. Everything was ready to roll at that point with the car packed etc. I left here at 2:37, as I recall, and got to the Days Inn at Tavares at 4am having stopped for gas and a muffin on the way into town. As you might imagine, there was not much traffic. I checked in, puttered with my bike getting it ready and we rolled out right at 5am.

The GPS worked perfectly ! The only imperfections were mine. There were two times where we were off the route that I'd plotted for a couple of blocks. I'll check those out when I get a chance to see where I went wrong. The other thing that I did at one point is somehow switch the thing into recalculate mode and it was constantly telling me to make a u-turn. It hadn't lost the course and I corrected it -- setting it back to "no recalculation" at the next Control Point. The 4xAA charger did it's job too, enabling the back-light to stay on when it was dark and extending the running time so that it didn't conk our somewhere south of 15 hours, its rated battery life.

How long was the ride ? Well, when we stopped at the 56 mile control point and I overheard someone comment that we only had 200 miles to go ... it sank in. That was a slight exaggeration, but not much. How hilly is Florida ? -- we did 6,400 feet of climbing ! I should have noticed that when I plotted the ride. A couple of hundred feet at a time, but it all adds up. There was no snow in the mountain passes :)

I chuckled to myself as I turned onto "Sugarloaf Mountain Road" thinking -- "ha, mountain" -- but it was a very steep hill, forcing me into low gear and at the top you could see forever. Well, not forever, but you could see Orlando which is probably 40 miles away at that point. We climbed that hill twice -- once before lunch and once late afternoon. The hill plays host to lots of riders, I guess that many bike clubs enjoy riding in the area. There are some houses at the top and one fellow has a table out with cold drinks for the riders. Apparently he's been doing that for years, presumably only on the weekends.

So ... how did I do ? Well, I finished the ride in 17:40, I think that is the official time. We started at 5am; I got back at 10:40. I was pleased with this time ... I wanted to get in before midnight ... perhaps I just made it, considering that the clocks were to be moved forward ????

My cyclocomputer shows 251.6 miles, 16:06 rolling time, 15.6 mph average. Those short stops all add up though -- an hour and a half -- but they are necessary, not so much for your muscles to rest but for your stomach to process some food. Speaking of food, on the next ride I won't try to eat as much solid food. I only had one bottle of gatorade, should probably drink more like 3-4 and get more carbs that way. By the end of the ride my stomach was signaling that it was going to reject any more snacks.

I rode with a few people at the beginning but once we started climbing our little group of five splintered and I was on my own. I was not happy with my climbing speed, what with the 30 pound bike, but since I was leaving others behind on the hills, perhaps it wasn't so bad after all. I do have to drop some weight out of that bag though. Perhaps I shouldn't carry so much food. I was not happy with the "feel" of the bike. Whether due to the leveraged weight at the back (same as the other rides) or some aerodynamic issues, if I took both hands off the handlebars they would wobble. It might be that little top-tube bag -- I'll have to experiment a little.

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I'm back. I hadn't finished before I had to go to Mass ... again.

I have to make some comments about the route -- it is great. The rolling hills, West Orange cycling trail, a little city riding ... all wonderful. It is challenging -- Tim Bol, the organizer (Regional Brevet Administrator / RBA) said that it's a challenging 400 between the hills and the wind. He should know -- he's done Paris-Brest-Paris 5 times, Boston-Montreal-Boston .. and most of the other 1200's around.

It was a hot day. I expect that it did hit the 80+ that was forecast. Still, with the early start, you end up wearing extra clothing. The temperature would have been in the 40's just before dawn and with a cool damp fog, it feels colder. Then, of course, you have to carry that stuff around all day. My long sleeved jersey, light jacket, vest all add up to a lot of stuffing and weight back on that rack. Add to that spare batteries, spare light, food ... most of the tools are not even in that rack, since I have them in the seatpost wedge in front of the rack.

I'll probably think of some more to say later ...